System Shock/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Contest Winner Cameo: The audio logs of Norris in the sequel are voiced by the System Shock fanboy who won the contest.
  • Fan Nickname: The unnamed protagonist of the second game is generally referred to as 'Goggles'.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: For many years, the first game was absent from any digital distribution method and almost impossible to find legally, and the only "legal" copies were second hand. Thankfully, that is no longer the case, as Night Dive Studios tracked down the rights and released a System Shock: Enhanced Edition with patches and updates to keep the game up to date with modern computers such as the addition of mouselook by default and support for higher resolution, fixed bugs from the original game, and more. The CD re-release of the game is also bundled with Enhanced Edition (and GOG.com also provides the original floppy disc version), allowing the DOS version of the game to be available digitally.
  • Old Shame: The developers aren't particularly fond of the floppy disk version of the original System Shock. In fact, it was only released as a result of Executive Meddling, and Warren Specter has even gone as far as to speculate that its release may have hampered the sales of the game overall.
  • Real Life Relative: SHODAN is voiced by Terri Brosius, wife of Eric Brosius, sound engineer and composer of System Shock 2 (she, too, was a Looking Glass employee at the time).
  • Screwed by the Lawyers: System Shock 2 was one of the most requested releases at GOG.com. Unfortunately, due to Looking Glass Studios' assets being acquired by Meadowbrook Insurance Group after they closed down and EA holding the trademark of the System Shock name, it took until February of 2013 for them to get the rights to release it.
  • Technology Marches On: A minor example, but try shooting out any of the monitors in the first game. The sound of rushing air and the way they look when broken proves that every screen on Citadel Station is a CRT.
  • The Wiki Rule: Gentlemen, meet the System Shock Wiki.